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[100killer9]

How do I create the most value possible from one sand bag?

[Haedrian]

Make crystal glass - you'll need rock-crystal gems to do so though.

Or make clear glass -you'll need pearlash to do that.

[Jim Groovester]

The most value would be the most expensive furniture you could make with a legendary glassmaker. Green glass, of course, since you only specified one bag of sand.

I think statues are the most valuable furniture. I may be wrong, however.

[Lord Shonus]

To maximize value in glass production from sand, you need to make clear glass. That requires you to burn a log to ash at the wood furnace, turn the ash into potash at the ashery, bake the potash into pearlash at the kiln, then make clear glass at the glass furnace. Note that this will require two fuel (one at the kiln and one at the glass furnace) unless you're using magma.

If you can find rock crystals, those can be substituted for sand in the same recipe to make crystal glass, which is far more valuable.

I'm not certain what product is the most valuable. Probably goblets, but that's just a guess.

[Rowanas]

Where do rock crystals appear? I've never seen one. EVER.

[100killer9]

Other than that. I prefer green glass simply because I can pump out green glass from virtually nothing. I need to know the most valuable thing I can make from green glass.
I have a legendary glassmaker (he made an artifact glass chain), so I guess I'll find the most valuable furniture!
And I'll use clear glass to construct noble rooms in my glass castle.

[Jim Groovester]

Where do rock crystals appear? I've never seen one. EVER.

They're pretty rare. They supposedly show up in all layers, but I've only ever seen them in basalt layers. And that may be just my fuzzy memory messing with me.

[Quietust]

Rock crystals are capable of showing up in any stone layer, but since there are so many types of gems, it's quite unlikely for them to be selected to show up - when they do show up, you can usually find a decent amount of you look hard enough.

As for value from glass, it'd be either statues or windows, both of which have a base value of 25. Green glass has a material value of 2 (same as flux stones and cheap metals like copper, tin, zinc, nickel, and lead), clear glass has a material value of 5 (same as fine pewter and bronze), and crystal glass has a material value of 10 (same as iron and silver).

[Rowanas]

I just checked in case I had accidentally removed them during my gem purge, but no, they're still there.

[loser]

I often find myself keeping the value page open in a tab when I'm playing DF.  On that page we find that Windows do indeed have the same base value as Statues, 25.  I don't think Glass can be made into Statues, however.

No matter.  As far as furniture made from (essentially) nothing, Green Glass Windows are the bee's knees.  Keep in mind that they will detract from the room the value of floor Engravings that they cover.  And if they are up against one or more walls they'll detract the value of the wall Engraving as well, if they happen to be facing into the room in the first place, of course.  Statues work the same way.

Now if you weren't talking about furniture, but just raw value, then Goblets would be the thing.  Goblets have a value of 10, but you make three from each bag of sand.  So that's 30, and that's the best way to raise overall Created Wealth for your fortress with little more than 'time' as an ongoing expense.

Unless, that is, you consider the Weapon Trap option.  With one Mechanism (which will take a stone, of course), you can pack ten Trap Component weapons onto one tile.  Each Trap Component has a base value of 10, so the math goes like this:

(10 (Trap Component weapons) x 10 (Trap Component base value) x 2 (Green Glass value multiplier) x 12 (Masterful value multiplier) ) + Mechanism value = 2,400 + Mechanism value.

On top of that, you could decorate each of those eleven components with Cut Green Glass for up to 2,640 additional value.  That's 5,040 + Mechanism value all on the same tile, effectively costing only time and a single stone.

If you have sand and magma, you may find it useful to have a whole slew of Magma Glass Furnaces cranking out Raw Green Glass that you can use to level up a Gem Cutter and, more importantly, a Gem Setter.

By the way, it takes Pearlash to make Crystal Glass, too.

I'm currently on a map with sand and magma and lots and lots of Rock Crystal.  It's the first time I've had such a map so I'm learning a lot about glass.  (The map also has flux, an underground spring, cave spiders, soil and trees, bauxite-by-caravan, HFS, and goblinite four times a year.  It's the richest map I've ever played.)

[Magua]

For sheer value, it'd be goblets.  Each is worth only 10x value, but you get three of them.  30x value > the 25x you get from statues and windows.

Also, I've been ninja'd.  Dammit.

[Quietust]

Glass can definitely be made into statues - my last fortress had a pair of clear glass statues just outside the front gates, serving to restrict caravans from entering via any other path.

Also, I seem to recall that statues and windows effectively count double toward created wealth if you (b)uild them - once for the item itself, and again for Architectural value.

[Lord Shonus]

Of course, if you're looking for trade goods, furniture is a bad idea due to weight.

[Wereman]

While on the topic of glass, is it possible to get sand on an originally non-sand map?

i tried draining my ponds/ rivers but no sand. just wondering if there is a way,
because my current fortress has a lot of precious gems to make some nicely valued stuff

[Stargrasper]

While on the topic of glass, is it possible to get sand on an originally non-sand map?

i tried draining my ponds/ rivers but no sand. just wondering if there is a way,
because my current fortress has a lot of precious gems to make some nicely valued stuff

If you don't have sand, you don't have sand and there's nothing you can do to acquire glass since traders will never bring it.  If you want glass you'll have to find a new embark location or start cheating(utilities like Dtil come to mind).